Putting the puzzle together one piece at a time

Do energy tariffs get you in a bit of a spin just like David Cameron today.

There are a huge range of tariffs available and if you have tried working out which is best for you it does end up being something of a lottery even if like me you rely on one of the online comparison websites.

With this in mind I have to say well done to David Cameron for stating that energy companies will have to tell us about their lowest tariffs and then allow us to move to them. This is good news considering the recent increases in both gas and electricity prices over the past few weeks.

This is being blamed on the wholesale costs the energy companies have to pay which they then pass on to us consumers. This all seems quite reasonable until you look at the graphs below which show how much the wholesale price has gone up this autumn?

I assume that your conclusion is the same as mine and that in fact at this point they have not gone up by a significant amount certainly not the 8 – 9% being levied by some!

In fact the last big spike was in 2008 and since then they have fallen and remained fairly steady. I haven’t noticed my gas and electricity bills coming down as much in response to this fall in wholesale price in fact they have gradually crept up.

I understand that the energy companies actually buy in advance and so it may be that there is a spike on its way it will be interesting to see if this appears in the graphs over the coming months.

In the meantime I am left with the sneaking suspicion that we are being taken advantage of yet again.

If this is the case then I sincerely hope that Dave keeps his words and forces the energy companies to offer us all the lowest tariff available. There has been something of a change in emphasis today with regard to what he meant but it would appear that he is back to the original statement this evening.